Ibuprofen is one of the most popular non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs available today. Ibuprofen is recommended for treating animals, particularly humans, as an anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and anti-pyretic drug. Ibuprofen is commonly used for reducing the pain associated with headaches and muscle aches, for reducing fevers, and for reducing inflammation. Ibuprofen is also commonly prescribed for the treatment of arthritis. Conventional ibuprofen is known to have a distinctly bitter, acidic, foul taste and to cause a burning sensation in the mouth and throat upon oral administration. Therefore, various attempts have been made to mask the taste of ibuprofen, the most common being to coat the ibuprofen in a tablet form for oral administration without chewing, usually accompanied with liquids to aid the swallowing, thus hiding the unpleasant taste of the free acid.
Unfortunately, a substantial portion of the population cannot swallow a tablet form of a drug and this is particularly true in the young and aged. These individuals commonly take such drugs in a liquid form, however the foul taste of ibuprofen in liquid form will most likely preclude compliance among these individuals.
Various attempts have been made to mask the taste of ibuprofen. The most common attempts incorporate the use of taste-masking agents with the ibuprofen, accompanied in many cases by costly production procedures. Examples of these prior efforts include admixing hydroxypropyl methylcellulose phthalate with the ibuprofen in a wet granulation process as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,916,161; spray drying a dispersion of ibuprofen, ethyl cellulose, and a plasticizer as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,835,188; dissolving ibuprofen with acrylic acid resin in an organic solvent and water to provide a granulated ibuprofen as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,966; and spray drying ibuprofen in a suspension of colloidal silica, alcohol, and cellulose acetate as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,835,186. Various attempts have also been made to alter the chemical structure of ibuprofen to a form that has a less objectionable taste as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,049,699 and 4,361,580, however the utility of these forms remains to be determined.
Conventional ibuprofen having a crystalline structure is also very irritating to the gastrointestinal tract of an animal. Continuous or high quantity dosing via oral administration of conventional crystalline ibuprofen can cause stomach irritation and even ulceration. This side effect of conventional crystalline ibuprofen limits its utility with a substantial portion of potential users.
There still exists a need in the art to develop a taste-masked form of ibuprofen which can be prepared easily and does not require the additional blending of specific amounts of certain taste-masking agents. Further, there exists a need to develop an ibuprofen form that is less irritating to the gastrointestinal tract of an animal.